1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to electronic equipment, a system for video content, and a display method, and is applicable to cases where a system is constructed by connecting a monitor to various kinds of video equipment via, e.g., a home network. In the present invention, external equipment being the various kinds of video equipment transmits metadata for defining at least a menu type and focus transition, to a system display being the monitor, and the system display displays a menu screen thereon, and further notifies the external equipment of what has been selected from the menu items displayed. Accordingly, it is made possible to enhance the user-friendliness of a graphical user interface for the external equipment compared with that for related art equipment.
2. Background of the Invention
In the past, television receivers, when having selected an external input through operation of their remote commander, provide a user with video content based on a video signal and an audio signal inputted from the terminals of the selected external input, in place of a video signal and an audio signal outputted by a built-in tuner. Thus, the television receivers can be used as monitors for video content supplied from external equipment. And in order to facilitate such selection and the like in the external equipment, television receivers have been available in which a menu screen is displayed via a graphical user interface to accept operations by a user.
Furthermore, some external equipment switch their function through operation with a remote commander dedicated thereto, and in order to simplify the operation of the remote commander, they display various menus via a graphical user interface for accepting the user's operation.
As one example of such a graphical user interface, e.g., Japanese Patent Application Publication No. H05-333838 has proposed a method in which a cursor is displayed and the display of the cursor is suspended after a predetermined time has elapsed, whereby to enhance, e.g., the user-friendliness.